Disposing of acrylic ink and paints OR more fun ways to use paint you might have thrown away!

     I think that the paint left on the brush is such a waste to wash down the sink! Now there is a reason not to! Golden Products suggests it may eventually clog your drain pipes!

     

What I do, and recommend when I teach, is to have a cloth or paper near by to wipe the excess paint onto. You can even to squirt water on brush to wash more paint off and encourage mixing directly on the cloth or paper. Some of these wipe cloths can really be artful! They can become backgrounds for other surface design. If you work in collage, you can also do this on most papers for a painted paper stash.

Do work on Plastic- nothing sticks. I use 4 ml- slightly heavier that regular painters tarp

    ANDDDD !also!

     I back my mounted work with a medium weight interfacing. This came about when I was figuring out my Holographic Images- ( plug- still available on Interweave! Here)

I needed to mount a transfer on the back to make it all work. The point is, the plain old white interfacing is soooo boring. 

Often, now, I cut a large piece and do the same wash technique with my leftover paint. I use lots of water so the spread is greater and the brush is cleaner. Then, I have some ready when theres work to mount.

back of work

     If you do art journaling, another thing you can do with leftover paint is to swipe your white pages. If the paper can take it, add water, but even without it, you can add color to the page ready for any further work you add- even just writing.

    Best part! You can do print-off's! Sometimes when I wash my brush off onto fabric or whatever, I'll take another piece of cloth, interfacing, paper or even my journal and press it onto that lovely wet paint- lift and you get a really cool print! 

The Easy Clean UP gets even easier!

I keep an old recycled yogurt container in my studio, filled partly with water. I plop the brushes in there for the final rise. Sometimes I just leave them there soaking. Any paint left basically just soaks off. 

     Once the yogurt container gets a little too dirty for that, just let it dry and recycle with your plastics! Paints and mediums are basically plastic- example- the peel off from bottle tops?

paper & fabric mix

inside a journal